Seminole teachers learn to fight back, 'survive for my students'

Use what you have – even garbage cans – to battle a gunman, teachers are told

Teachers are learning to fight back in a special self-defense… (Lola Gomez, Orlando Sentinel )

February 16, 2013|By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel

LAKE MARY – Several teachers on Saturday trained for the one scenario they hoped to never encounter in real life: a gunman coming into their classroom.

Christina Liu, a teacher at Lake Mary Preparatory School, practiced punching, kicking, and taking down a gunman with a garbage can at Champion Karate in Lake Mary.

"I couldn't sleep the entire weekend after Sandy Hook," said Liu. "I kept thinking about the first-graders I have as students. I want to feel empowered that there is something I can do," she said.

That was the goal for the special self-defense course for teachers, said Lake Mary Police Officer Zach Hudson, one of the instructors.

"I'm not a proponent of arming teachers, but I am a proponent for every teacher taking a self-defense class," he said. "These teachers are starting to recognize that there is a very real threat posed to them and their students."

Mike Friedman, owner of the dojo, said he didn't expect to turn the 20 attendees into black belts overnight. However, he and Hudson focused on techniques for disarming a gunman with things teachers already have in the classroom — a hot cup of coffee, a stapler, scissors, even the trash can.

"The last thing you want to do is to engage a target," Hudson explained to the teachers. "But if you do, you have to throw everything you have.

"Hunker down and wait for the SWAT team doesn't work. These shooters are looking for mass casualties," he added. "Denial will kill you."

Having a police officer at the schools isn't the solution, because Columbine actually had armed security, Hudson said. Instead, the teachers would have to be able to react quickly to such a potential threat.

Training included a workout of kicks, punches, palm strikes and elbow strikes against karate instructors, like Luke Elrod, who pretended to be the armed gunman and withstood several strikes with a garbage can during the training session.

The group repeated mantras: "I will survive. I will survive for myself. I will survive for my students."

Friedman demonstrated potential take-down scenarios, in which the main focus was disabling the weapon arm and attacking the assailant until the threat was over.

It was a hard lesson for some to act so aggressively. "You're all loving, compassionate human beings but we want to train the brain," said Hudson.

Sarah Sego, a teacher at Lakeside Fellowship Preschool and Kindergarten in Sanford, was eager to practice the defense scenarios.

"I've been in lock down situations and you just don't know what's going to happen," said Sego. "Hopefully, I will never have to use this, but you just want to be prepared."